Dressing up propaganda as diplomacy

OLIVE BRANCH TO ARMENIA
Turkish Press
May 22 2008
Turkey

Ankara, which offered to establish dialogue with the newly elected
Armenian administration, is waiting for Yerevan`s reply.

Turkey has extended its hand to Armenia in an effort to put an end
to a dispute of 234 years between the two countries.

President Abdullah Gul, Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign
Minister Ali Babacan congratulated Serzh Sargsyan upon his election
as the president of Armenia and offered to "improve the relations"
between the countries.

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[there seems to be a recurring problem in Turkey with the delivery of

notes from Armenia. This has been responded to as has the proposal

to have a joint historical commission. Or is it spun politics?]
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Extract from

BARACK OBAMA AND TURKISH FOREIGN POLICY
By Emre Uslu & öNder Aytac*
Today's Zaman
May 22 2008
Turkey

"Obama's position on the Armenian genocide issue seems to be
a problematic one for Turkey. However, if Turkey were able to
demonstrate its openness to solving this issue through dialogue
-- i.e., establishing a commission for independent historians to
investigate the issue objectively by examining international archives,
including Ottoman, Russian, British and Dashnak archives in Boston --
Obama would put pressure on the Armenian side to accept Turkey's offer
as the first step of establishing dialogue between the two sides. Thus,
what Turkey should do is to choose a way to demonstrate its openness to
dialogue if the Armenian side accepts Turkey's offer to establish the
commission of historians. On this matter, Professor Yusuf Halacoglu's
recent statement of suggesting $20 million of financial help to open
the Dashnak archive in Boston would be clear evidence of the Turkish
authorities' openness to dialogue on this subject.

* Emre Uslu is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Utah Middle
East Center. Onder Aytac is an associate professor at Gazi University
department of communications and works with the Security Studies
Institute in Ankara.
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[why exclude the US and German archives? It's all posturing]
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TURKEY URGES OPENING OF ARMENIAN ARCHIVE
United Press International UPI
May 21 2008

Turkey has offered $20 million to open an Armenian archive in the
United States, claiming documents there will support its version of
the 1915 massacre.

Yusuf Halacoglu, head of the state-funded Turkish Historical Society,
told Hurriyet the archive in Boston includes important documents on
the events of 1915.

Halacoglu said he had been told the archives cannot be opened because
they need proper cataloging.

"This would directly open a debate over the genocide claims," he
said. "Armenians are aware of this and therefore they are doing their
best not to sit at the table."

Armenians and most non-Turkish scholars of the period say 1.5 million
Armenians were killed by the Ottoman Empire in 1915 and generally label
the deaths genocide -- a term the Turkish government disputes. The
official Turkish version is that about 300,000 Armenians and 300,000
Turks were killed in an Armenian bid for independence.

About 50,000 Armenians remain in Turkey.
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[Yusuf Halacoglu is an empoyee of the Turkish government]
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TURKISH AMBASSADOR CALLS ON ARMENIANS: WE SHOULD

NOT RAISE OUR CHILDREN WITH ANIMOSITY
Turkish Press
May 21 2008

WASHINGTON D.C. - The Turkish Ambassador in Washington D.C. has called
on Armenians not to raise children with animosity.

Speaking at a meeting hosted by the Potomac Institute for Policy
Studies on "the Future of Turkey-U.S. Strategic Partnership", Nabi
Sensoy said, "the draft resolution submitted to the U.S. Congress on
the incidents of 1915 brought Turkey-U.S. relations to 'brink of a
disaster'. We are pleased with leaving those days behind as a result
of resolute attitude of U.S. administration and congressmen."

Sensoy reminded that Prime Minister Erdogan had called on Armenians
to form a joint committee of historians to unveil the truth.

"Turkey has opened its archives long ago. Armenians should do the
same thing. We expect politicians in the United States and in other
countries to let historians to deal with past events," he said.

"We should not raise our children with animosity. I grew up together
with many Turkish citizens of Armenian descent. It was one of
our Armenian neighbors who cried and mourned most when I lost my
father. Enmity does not lead us to anywhere," he said.

Denying accusations that Turkey imposed economic embargo on Armenia,
Sensoy said that Turkey was the fifth biggest economic partner of
Armenia and number of weekly flights between Turkey and Armenia
reached four. [!!!!!!}

"Everyone in Turkey condemned killing of journalist Hrant
Dink. Tens of thousands of people took to the streets to protest his
assassination. It is not correct to claim that the Armenian issue was
not discussed in Turkey. On the contrary, any opposition to state's
views regarding the incidents of 1915 was banned in Armenia with an
amendment to the penal code in October 2006." he said. [!!!!!!}

Sensoy also criticized that the Armenian diaspora thwarted Armenian
Patriarch Mesrob Mutafyan's speech during his visit to Washington D.C.

Referring to the other developments in the region, Sensoy said, "Like
the international community, Turkey does not want to see Iran armed
with nuclear weapons. However, we think that Iran should not be fully
isolated by the international community. Instead, we should improve our
relations with them and try to persuade them to change their policies."
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